Episodios

  • The Family Proclamation: A Peculiar Document

    The Family Proclamation: A Peculiar Document
    Jul 19 2024
    There is perhaps no document in recent years that has been more polarizing for Latter-day Saints than The Family Proclamation. Is it a prophetic document? Is it doctrine? Is it scripture? Or just good advice? It seems there is hardly any consensus amongst Latter-day Saints on this matter. Conservative members tend to use the document as a bludgeon against people who are LGBTQ+, seeing their sexual and gender identities as violating God's commandments given to present-day prophets, seers, and revelators. Whereas liberal members tend to negotiate more with the text, trying to adjust the document to meet their present-day sensibilities or simply calling for the dismissal of the document entirely. In this episode, we challenge dogmatic readings of this text by analyzing its history as an amicus brief for a civil rights case in Hawaii. We further discuss the history of the ideas contained within the document. What does the text say? What did the original authors intend for the text to say? Where do these ideas come from? How does that original intent get swept away by the passage of time and through how the text is used? These questions are particularly pertinent since Latter-day Saints are famous for polygamy—a sexual orientation that was quite deviant from the norms of the time. The Family Proclamation, with its staunch stance of monogamy and cisgender heterosexuality, stands as an awkward contrast to the sexual and relational history of the Church, particularly in its infancy. Please check out Dan McClellan's podcast episode on the matter if you'd like to learn more about homosexuality in the Bible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW6w-AOiKNM&pp=ygUeZGF0YSBvdmVyIGRvZ21hIGFkYW0gYW5kIHN0ZXZl To access David Scott and Boyd Petersen's article, use this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmPbiKVlj0XdPdpWLdkYFyHGT5Me9ut7/view?usp=drivesdk --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 h y 48 m
  • Counting Down the Christmas Clock with Mr. Grinch

    Counting Down the Christmas Clock with Mr. Grinch
    Dec 23 2023
    Blast this music... it's joyful and triumphant! This Christmas we engage in one of the most important ontological discussions since the debates over the nature of Christ at the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon: What is the Grinch and Why is the Grinch? Using Jim Carrey's version of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" as our basis, we explore the wacky world of Who reproduction--exploring where babies come from--and primarily engage with The Grinch's struggle to regain a will to power stripped away from him in his youth. However, the film leaves us hanging a little bit on this front: does the Grinch surrender himself to a status quo in Whoville? Or does he bring about a real transformation of Whoville by relinquishing his resentment of the Whos and Christmas? All of this, and more, will be discussed! Merry Christmas to all, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays! We appreciate your continuous support. *Content Warning* There are mentions of sexuality throughout this episode, especially since characters in the film are... umm... subtly sexually involved? There is a brief discussion of eugenics and ableism as we investigate a Platonic interpretation of the film. We do not endorse these views and actively oppose them. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 h y 3 m
  • Brandon Wilson -- Mormonism, Theurgy, and the Theurgic

    Brandon Wilson -- Mormonism, Theurgy, and the Theurgic
    Dec 22 2023
    For this special episode of The Analyst & The Fool, we bring you one of our first episodes ever recorded. In this episode, we dissect this amorphous blob called Brandon Wilson; a PhD student at Claremont Graduate University. Brandon details a bit about his intellectual biography as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, getting introduced to the writings of Hugh Nibley, learning to think critically and ask penetrating questions about his faith, and how that led him to study esoteric subjects such as Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, and theosophy under Jeffrey Kripal and Claire Fanger at Rice University. Now, Brandon is bringing these approaches to Mormon Studies in how Latter-day Saints experience their temple ordinances through comparing them with Neoplatonic theurgy. Invoking the comparative hermeneutics of Algis Uzdavinys in his work Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity, Brandon explores how Mormonism’s temple practices can be categorized as “theurgic” in nature, ritual actions that aid initiates to bring themselves into higher states of consciousness and align their actions with the actions of God. In this sense, Latter-day Saints aim to create heaven on this earth through these processes, thereby making God immanent and subject to human action/inaction. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 h y 3 m
  • Christian Van Dyke -- Mormon Studies and the Ethics of Comparative Religion

    Christian Van Dyke -- Mormon Studies and the Ethics of Comparative Religion
    Dec 22 2023
    For this special episode of The Analyst & The Fool, we bring you our very first episodes ever recorded. In this episode, we dissect this thing called Christian Van Dyke. He is a PhD student at Claremont Graduate University and, in this episode, we discuss his approach to Mormon Studies, Comparative Religion, and philosophy. Christian tells his background and journey to CGU’s Philosophy and Religious Thought program which has compelled him to be involved in Mormon Studies but made him apprehensive at the same time. He talks about four foundational texts that have motivated his work and his approach to the study of “religion” throughout his academic career. These texts are Brian Birch’s “A Portion of God’s Light: Mormonism and Religious Pluralism,” Donald Davidson’s “On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme,” Eugene England’s “On Becoming a World Religion: Blacks, the Poor– All of Us,” And Peter Winch’s “Understanding a Primitive Religion.” These texts have helped Christian develop an ethic of comparative religion that argues that there is no neutral place from which to talk about “religion” and to always be mindful that comparison may say more about the one doing the comparing than what the things being compared might or might not actually have in common. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 h y 21 m
  • Latter-day Saint Thinkers -- Truman G. Madsen: Cultivator of the Latter-day Saint Experience

    Latter-day Saint Thinkers -- Truman G. Madsen: Cultivator of the Latter-day Saint Experience
    Oct 27 2023

    In recent years, Latter-day Saints have emphasized spiritual experiences as their epistemological vantage point that upholds their respective worldviews. This shift is exemplified by the Church drastically changing its approach to missionary work in 2004 with "Preach My Gospel" which emphasizes that missionaries urge potential converts to have and continuously cultivate their own experiences with God. Even further, Pres. Russell M. Nelson has also persistently urged members to do the same, such as his prophecy where he said "In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.” Truman G. Madsen was a primary influence in this shift where--recalling back to Armand Mauss' episode--retrenchment became so tight that its borders began to crack a bit leading to a shift in the Church's philosophical approach. Madsen's approach to the faith was less about hashing out minute arguments and apologetics and instead hammering home the primacy of personal experience. Using William James' radical empiricism as his basis, Madsen states that Mormonism is true because it feels true for those whom Joseph Smith's story resonates with. The Book of Mormon need not be true due to historical facts, but can instead be true on the basis of how it transforms lives in the here and now. All solidified facts and philosophies, according to William James and Truman G. Madsen, are the results of people hashing out what experiences they find meaningful and that they are always subject to change.

    Suggested Reading for Overachievers:

    "Five Classics by Truman G. Madsen" by Truman G. Madsen

    "Joseph Smith The Prophet" by Truman G. Madsen

    "The Truman G. Madsen Story" by Barnard N. Madsen

    Feel free to look over his entire corpus which cane be found on his website here: https://trumanmadsen.com/new/?page_id=45

    --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 h y 4 m
  • Because I Didn't Read It -- Aristotle: "The Nicomachean Ethics"

    Because I Didn't Read It -- Aristotle: "The Nicomachean Ethics"
    Oct 20 2023

    In this episode, Christian and Brandon tackle one of the defining pinnacles of "Western" philosophy. This text is of the utmost importance because Aristotle's rationality, especially as it pertains to metaphysics, ethics, and politics, is very much still alive today. Have you ever heard the saying "The truth is somewhere in between two extremes"? Or that the highest virtue that leads to happiness is contemplation? Have you ever been moved by the art of Dante or Dickens? Aristotle.

    The Nichomachean Ethics is famous for introducing, what Aristotle calls, "the golden mean." In all forms of action, Aristotle says, there are two polar extremes. Virtue is learning how to find the proper ratios between these two polarities. For example, cowardice and recklessness are two polar extremes; courage is the virtue that comes from discerning and acting upon the proper course of action between these two extremes. Through constant practice--what Aristotle calls habituation--moral virtues are acquired which will gradually lead one to intellectual virtues. As one masters all virtues, through the act of contemplation, a man will be a god on earth, leading and helping the rest of humanity on their journey.

    It should come as no surprise that Aristotle played a chief role in the formation of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theologies. He further established rational values that flourished during the Enlightenment period, that we are today reaping the fruits of.

    --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 h y 24 m
  • Horsin' Around -- Psychedelics at the Intersection of America's Courts, Clinics, and Churches

    Horsin' Around -- Psychedelics at the Intersection of America's Courts, Clinics, and Churches
    Oct 13 2023

    In this episode, we jump into new territory--altered states, if you will. We are pleased to welcome Connor Storck onto the show to discuss his work with psychedelic law in the United States.

    Connor is currently a law student at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law where he hopes to complete his J.D. and sit for the bar in 2024. He is also the current Director of Operations for the Intercollegiate Psychedelics Network (website can be found here: https://www.intercollegiatepsychedelics.net).

    Connor and Brandon were in the same cohort at Rice University where they both received their respective MA degrees in 2019. Connor's perspectives on psychedelics and the prominence of altered states of consciousness within religious communities proved to be transformative for Brandon--so much so, that it blew open his brain to the possibility of Mormonism being founded on such substance use (more on that in the future--stay tuned).

    In this episode, Connor and Brandon start out by reminiscing about their days at Rice (where Christian feels left out for missing all the fun). They then jump into the tumultuous, Sisyphus-like battle over the legality of psychedelics and trying to close the Pandora's box opened by Richard Nixon's and Ronald Reagan's respective "war on drugs." Psychedelics, and altered states of consciousness more broadly, are foundational to the history of humanity --past, present, and future--and the creation of culture and mythology itself. It is simply unavoidable and has even proven to be deeply valuable in therapeutic settings. While the legal future of psychedelics is perhaps a few decades from becoming more normalized, there is hope!

    --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 h y 23 m
  • Latter-day Saint Thinkers -- Armand Mauss: Sociologist of the Faith

    Latter-day Saint Thinkers -- Armand Mauss: Sociologist of the Faith
    Oct 6 2023
    ***Disclaimer: This episode contains a brief and explicit discussion on sexuality; listener discretion is advised.*** Up until this point, we have been discussing leaders in the formation of Latter-day Saint thought, documenting how they articulate their respective takes on the theologies and practices of “Mormonism.” With Armand Mauss, we take a step back from that and analyze the Church as an object of sociological study. Armand Mauss (1928-2020) was a professor of sociology at Washington State University where he specialized in the sociology of religion. His most influential work on Mormonism is undoubtedly The Angel and The Beehive (1994). This work dissects the sociology of the Church in the twentieth century, highlighting the shifts from "polygamy era" Mormons at the turn of the century, to "assimilationist" movements in the early part of the century, and concluding the century with a shift to "retrenchment." Mauss wants to dissect what societal drove drove these changes, particularly the shift from "assimilationist" to "retrenchment." For Mauss, the "assimilationist" period is when the Church sought to rebrand itself post-polygamy, hoping to assimilate itself with the broader American "Christian culture." Prior to this shift, the United States was often polemicized as the "wicked world" that the people of Zion (i.e. Mormons) needed to leave, taking refuge in the mountains (i.e. Utah). All that shifted in the 1920s when Church leaders wanted to be viewed as a "brother church" with other Protestant, Catholic, and even Jewish denominations. The 1960s, however, brought a shift of the Church’s focus to retrenchment, where Church leaders, such as J. Reuben Clark, Ezra Taft Benson, Harold B. Lee, and Bruce R. McConkie, sought to "particularize" the Church again, hoping to recreate the former glories of Mormonism's past that were lost through assimilation with “the world.” The shift created a more hierarchically rigid and corporatized Church where Church leaders organized themselves and led the Church as if it were a business, and one does not question one’s leaders lest they be conceived of as apostate. The retrenchment period saw further economic shifts in the Church's business ventures, crackdowns on what conducts were permissible for Temple recommends, and even strict guides on how the family ought to conduct themselves ranging from the creation of Family Home Evening to publishing a pamphlet on what sexual positions were proper and improper. Mauss is a figure that you may not have heard of, but his ideas created the field of Mormon Studies as we know it today. Suggested Reading for Overachievers - "The Angel and The Beehive" by Armand Mauss - "Rethinking Retrenchment" by Armand Mauss (This is Mauss' updated views on his book "The Angel and The Beehive," written in 2011. Access here: https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/rethinking-retrenchment-course-corrections-in-the-ongoing-quest-for-respectability/#pdf-wrap - "All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage" by Armand Mauss - "Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport: Intellectual Journeys of a Mormon Academic" by Armand Mauss --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 h y 36 m